I think that the
mystery of the colonial beetles does not really exist in the sense that the
cars of D'Ieteren were not prototypes but simply modified cars to be used in
that specific trip, using components and solutions already tested thoroughly
during the war. The beetles do not have any real technical innovation, except
for the air vents, the presence of which could be explained assuming that the
cars were examples of pre-production, a practice that was normal. I myself have
a standard Beetle, that according to "official" production data should
not exist, in the sense that it was produced a month earlier than it should.

Taking into account
the moment the trip was conceived and organized, (in the mid of 1950) it is
very likely that what was really under test were not the two beetles but the Microbus,
which had just been launched on the market (June 1950). The war had been for
the beetle the most severe test imaginable, during which the most different
configurations were tested and made
operational. The T1, however, was a completely new vehicle. The first prototype
in the final configuration was made just a year earlier. A raid in extreme
conditions of 26.000 km was a very important opportunity to confirm its
reliability and, above all, its strength.

The involvement of VW,
and the will to take the opportunity of the success of the adventure for
promotional purposes, is clear considering first of all the timely and detailed
media coverage provided by Gute Fahrt, which gave news and insights in three
issues of the magazine, to which have to be added the two volumes dedicated by D'Ieteren to
his and his mother African adventures. This will is confirmed by the space
dedicated D’Ieteren vehicles during the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1951 and the
tour of the dealers in Germany and Belgium.

Information on the D’Ieteren
raid were first published in Gute Fahrt magazine in March 1951 (see Fig. 1) with the following text:

"As in "NIGHT AT
THE CONGO", here is the Count Pierre d'leteren with his crew, a car and a
Volkswagen van finally at rest. The trip started and ended in Brussels. In
three months and 26,000 km they travelled through France, Spain, North and
Central Africa, having as destination Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo. The
trip has been very tough, with a lot of desert, even more mud and a quantity of
jungle. But VW have made their way trough the heart of Africa, where even the
natives - as the song says - dance to the sound of whispered Congolese songs.
No other car would have endured these difficulties, said on his return to
Brussels Count leteren. We will return to the trip to the Congo soon."

The song to which the
article refers is this; listen and enjoy a the atmosphere of the time:

The Standard is the poor brother of the Beetle that we all know, the Export model.Its history and evolution had developed independently and discreetly, leaving little trace in the literature in the past.Also the literature of today offers very few information on it, and when it does is often superficial, incomplete, if not simply wrong.

But Standard is not only the poor variant of the beetle, it is also an attitude, a way of seeing things, paying attention to everything, by its nature, goes unnoticed because it is not trendy, not glamor, and is not cause of admiration, emulation, desire.